March issue of Acta Crystallographica Section C: Structural Chemistry

The cover of the March issue of Acta Crystallographica Section C: Structural Chemistry features work by Benjamin Kucera, Victor Young Jr, William?Brennessel and John Ellis (Universities of Minnesota and Rochester, USA).

Reduction of bis(naphthalene)vanadium(0) by potassium naphthalene (KNp) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) provides a highly reactive, thermolabile and so far unisolable brown substance, which affords the first reported derivatives of bis(naphthalene)vanadates. From these solutions, thermally stable (298 K) and structurally characterized compounds have been obtained, one of which is the only example of a structurally authenticated homoleptic bis(arene)metallate dianion and was obtained by further reduction of the brown material by KNp in THF, in the presence of trimethylphosphane (PMe3). Addition of anthracene (An) to the brown material in THF afforded deep-violet and paramagnetic crystalline [K(18-crown-6)][V(anthracene)2(THF)].2THF, which readily reacted with PMe3 and dmpe to give new vanadate salts. The last three structures contain the first known bis(anthracene)vanadates and are thereby derivatives of the unknown bis(anthracene)vanadium(0). Attempts to obtain the sodium salt analog of [K(18-crown-6)(THF)2][V(anthracene)2(PMe3)] in THF resulted instead in the formation of a unique substance, [Na(THF)~3~][V2(anthracene)2], containing the first reported dimetallabis(anthracene) sandwich compound.